Writings of Augustine. The Pelagian Controversy.
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Augustin and the Pelagian Controversy.
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism
of Infants
by Aurelius Augustin, Bishop of Hippo;
In Three Books,
Published in 1886 by Philip Schaff,
New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co.
Addressed to Marcellinus, a.d. 412.
Book I.
In which he refutes those who maintain, that Adam must have died even
if he had never sinned; and that nothing of his sin has been
transmitted to his posterity by natural descent. He also shows, that
death has not accrued to man by any necessity of his nature, but as
the penalty of sin; He then proceeds to prove that in Adam's sin his
entire offspring is implicated, showing that infants are baptized for
the express purpose of receiving the remission of original sin.
Chapter 1 [I.]--Introductory, in the Shape of an Inscription to His
Friend Marcellinus.
Howeverabsorbing and intense the anxieties and annoyances in the whirl
and warmth of which we are engaged with sinful men [209] who forsake
the law of God,--even though we may well ascribe these very evils to
the fault of our own sins,--I am unwilling, and, to say the truth,
unable, any longer to remain a debtor, my dearest Marcellinus, [210]
to that zealous affection of yours, which only enhances my own
grateful and pleasant estimate of yourself. I am under the impulse [of
a twofold emotion]: on the one hand, there is that very love which
makes us unchangeably one in the one hope of a change for the better;
on the other hand, there is the fear of offending God in yourself, who
has given you so earnest a desire; in gratifying which I shall be only
serving Him who has given it to you. And so strongly has this impulse
led and attracted me to solve, to the best of my humble ability, the
questions which you have submitted to me in writing, that my mind has
gradually admitted this inquiry to an importance transcending that of
all others; [and it will now give me no rest] until I accomplish
something which shall make it manifest that I have yielded, if not a
sufficient, yet at any rate an obedient, compliance with your own kind
wish and the desire of those to whom these questions are a source of
anxiety.
Footnotes
[209] This is probably an allusion to the Donatists, who were then
fiercely assailing the Catholics; [and over the conference between
whom and the Catholics, Marcellinus had presided the previous year
(411).--W.]
[210] [Flavius Marcellinus, a "tribune and notary," a Christian man of
high character and devout mind, who was much interested in theological
discussions. He was appointed by Honorius to preside over the
commission of inquiry into the disputes between the Catholics and
Donatists in 411, and held the famous conference between the parties,
that met in Carthage on the 1st, 3d, and 8th of June, 411. He
discharged this whole business with singular patience, moderation, and
good judgment; which appears to have cemented the intimate friendship
between him and Augustin. Augustin's treatise on The Spirit and Letter
is also addressed to him, and he undertook the City of God on his
suggestion. See below, p. 80.--W.]
Chapter 2 [II.]--If Adam Had Not Sinned, He Would Never Have Died.
They who say that Adam was so formed that he would even without any
demerit of sin have died, not as the penalty of sin, but from the
necessity of his being, endeavour indeed to refer that passage in the
law, which says: "On the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die,"
[211] not to the death of the body, but to that death of the soul
which takes place in sin. It is the unbelievers who have died this
death, to whom the Lord pointed when He said, "Let the dead bury their
dead." [212] Now what will be their answer, when we read that God,
when reproving and sentencing the first man after his sin, said to
him, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return?" [213] For it
was not in respect of his soul that he was "dust," but clearly by
reason of his body, and it was by the death of the self-same body that
he was destined to "return to dust." Still, although it was by reason
of his body that he was dust, and although he bare about the natural
body in which he was created, he would, if he had not sinned, have
been changed into a spiritual body, and would have passed into the
incorruptible state, which is promised to the faithful and the saints,
without the peril of death. [214] And for this issue we not only are
conscious in ourselves of having an earnest desire, but we learn it
from the apostle's intimation, when he says: "For in this we groan,
longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven;
if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that
are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would
be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of
life." [215] Therefore, if Adam had not sinned, he would not have been
divested of his body, but would have been clothed upon with
immortality and incorruption, that "mortality might have been
swallowed up of life;" that is, that he might have passed from the
natural body into the spiritual body.
Footnotes
[211] Gen. ii. 17.
[212] Matt. viii. 22; Luke ix. 60.
[213] Gen. iii. 19.
[214] 1 Cor. xv. 52, 53.
[215] 2 Cor. v. 2-4.
Chapter 3 [III.]--It is One Thing to Be Mortal, Another Thing to Be
Subject to Death.
Nor was there any reason to fear that if he had happened to live on
here longer in his natural body, he would have been oppressed with old
age, and have gradually, by increasing age, arrived at death. For if
God granted to the clothes and the shoes of the Israelites that "they
waxed not old" during so many years, [216] what wonder if for
obedience it had been by the power of the same [God] allowed to man,
that although he had a natural and mortal body, he should have in it a
certain condition, in which he might grow full of years without
decrepitude, and, whenever God pleased, pass from mortality to
immortality without the medium of death? For even as this very flesh
of ours, which we now possess, is not therefore invulnerable, because
it is not necessary that it should be wounded; so also was his not
therefore immortal, because there was no necessity for its dying. Such
a condition, whilst still in their natural and mortal body, I suppose,
was granted even to those who were translated hence without death.
[217] For Enoch and Elijah were not reduced to the decrepitude of old
age by their long life. But yet I do not believe that they were then
changed into that spiritual kind of body, such as is promised in the
resurrection, and which the Lord was the first to receive; only they
probably do not need those aliments, which by their use minister
refreshment to the body; but ever since their translation they so
live, as to enjoy such a sufficiency as was provided during the forty
days in which Elijah lived on the cruse of water and the cake, without
substantial food; [218] or else, if there be any need of such
sustenance, they are, it may be, sustained in Paradise in some such
way as Adam was, before he brought on himself expulsion therefrom by
sinning. And he, as I suppose, was supplied with sustenance against
decay from the fruit of the various trees, and from the tree of life
with security against old age.
Footnotes
[216] Deut. xxix. 5.
[217] Gen. v. 24; 2 Kings ii. 11.
[218] 1 Kings xix. 8.
Chapter 4 [IV.]--Even Bodily Death is from Sin.
But in addition to the passage where God in punishment said, "Dust
thou art, unto dust shalt thou return," [219] --a passage which I
cannot understand how any one can apply except to the death of the
body,--there are other testimonies likewise, from which it most fully
appears that by reason of sin the human race has brought upon itself
not spiritual death merely, but the death of the body also. The
apostle says to the Romans: "But if Christ be in you, the body is dead
because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If
therefore the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken
also your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." [220] I
think that so clear and open a sentence as this only requires to be
read, and not expounded. The body, says he, is dead, not because of
earthly frailty, as being made of the dust of the ground, but because
of sin; what more do we want? And he is most careful in his words: he
does not say "is mortal," but "dead."
Footnotes
[219] Gen. iii. 19.
[220] Rom. viii. 10, 11.
Chapter 5 [V.] --The Words, Mortale (Capable of Dying), Mortuum
(Dead), and Moriturus (Destined to Die).
Now previous to the change into the incorruptible state which is
promised in the resurrection of the saints, the body could be mortal
(capable of dying), although not destined to die (moriturus); just as
our body in its present state can, so to speak, be capable of
sickness, although not destined to be sick. For whose is the flesh
which is incapable of sickness, even if from some accident it die
before it ever is sick? In like manner was man's body then mortal; and
this mortality was to have been superseded by an eternal incorruption,
if man had persevered in righteousness, that is to say, obedience: but
even what was mortal (mortale) was not made dead (mortuum), except on
account of sin. For the change which is to come in at the resurrection
is, in truth, not only not to have death incidental to it, which has
happened through sin, but neither is it to have mortality, [or the
very possibility of death,] which the natural body had before it
sinned. He does not say: "He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead
shall quicken also your dead bodies" (although he had previously said,
"the body is dead" [221] ); but his words are: "He shall quicken also
your mortal bodies;" [222] so that they are not only no longer dead,
but no longer mortal [or capable of dying], since the natural is
raised spiritual, and this mortal body shall put on immortality, and
mortality shall be swallowed up in life. [223]
Footnotes
[221] Rom. viii. 10.
[222] Rom. viii. 11.
[223] 1 Cor. xv. 44, 53, 55.
Chapter 6 [VI.]--How It is that the Body Dead Because of Sin.
One wonders that anything is required clearer than the proof we have
given. But we must perhaps be content to hear this clear illustration
gainsaid by the contention, that we must understand "the dead body"
here [224] in the sense of the passage where it is said, "Mortify your
members which are upon the earth." [225] But it is because of
righteousness and not because of sin that the body is in this sense
mortified; for it is to do the works of righteousness that we mortify
our bodies which are upon the earth. Or if they suppose that the
phrase, "because of sin," is added, not that we should understand
"because sin has been committed," but "in order that sin may not be
committed"--as if it were said, "The body indeed is dead, in order to
prevent the commission of sin:" what then does he mean in the next
clause by adding the words, "because of righteousness," to the
statement, "The spirit is life?" [226] For it would have been enough
simply to have adjoined "the spirit is life," to have secured that we
should supply here too, "in order to prevent the commission of sin;"
so that we should thus understand the two propositions to point to one
thing--that both "the body is dead," and "the spirit is life," for the
one common purpose of "preventing the commission of sin." So likewise
if he had merely meant to say, "because of righteousness," in the
sense of "for the purpose of doing righteousness," the two clauses
might possibly be referred to this one purpose--to the effect, that
both "the body is dead," and "the spirit is life," "for the purpose of
doing righteousness." But as the passage actually stands, it declares
that "the body is dead because of sin," and "the spirit is life
because of righteousness," attributing different merits to different
things--the demerit of sin to the death of the body, and the merit of
righteousness to the life of the spirit. Wherefore if, as no one can
doubt, "the spirit is life because of righteousness," that is, as the
desert, of righteousness; how ought we, or can we, understand by the
statement, "The body is dead because of sin," anything else than that
the body is dead as the desert of sin, unless indeed we try to pervert
or wrest the plainest sense of Scripture to our own arbitrary will?
But besides this, additional light is afforded by the words which
follow. For it is with limitation to the present time, when he says,
that on the one hand "the body is dead because of sin," since, whilst
the body is unrenovated by the resurrection, there remains in it the
desert of sin, that is, the necessity of dying; and on the other hand,
that "the spirit is life because of righteousness," since,
notwithstanding the fact of our being still burdened with "the body of
this death," [227] we have already by the renewal which is begun in
our inner man, new aspirations [228] after the righteousness of faith.
Yet, lest man in his ignorance should fail to entertain hope of the
resurrection of the body, he says that the very body which he had just
declared to be "dead because of sin" in this world, will in the next
world be made alive "because of righteousness,"--and that not only in
such a way as to become alive from the dead, but immortal from its
mortality.
Footnotes
[224] Rom. viii. 10.
[225] Col. iii. 5.
[226] Rom. viii. 10.
[227] Rom. vii. 24.
[228] Respiramus.
Chapter 7 [VII.]--The Life of the Body the Object of Hope, the Life of
the Spirit Being a Prelude to It.
Although I am much afraid that so clear a matter may rather be
obscured by exposition, I must yet request your attention to the
luminous statement of the apostle. "But if Christ," says he, "be in
you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life
because of righteousness." [229] Now this is said, that men may not
suppose that they derive no benefit, or but scant benefit, from the
grace of Christ, seeing that they must needs die in the body. For they
are bound to remember that, although their body still bears that
desert of sin, which is irrevocably bound to the condition of death,
yet their spirit has already begun to live because of the
righteousness of faith, although it had actually become extinct by the
death, as it were, of unbelief. No small gift, therefore, he says,
must you suppose to have been conferred upon you, by the circumstance
that Christ is in you; inasmuch as in the body, which is dead because
of sin, your spirit is even now alive because of righteousness; so
that therefore you should not despair of the life even of your body.
"For if the Spirit of Him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in
you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken also your
mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." [230] How is it
that fumes of controversy still darken so clear a light? The apostle
distinctly tells you, that although the body is dead because of sin
within you, yet even your mortal bodies shall be made alive because of
righteousness, because of which even now your spirit is life,--the
whole of which process is to be perfected by the grace of Christ, that
is, by His Spirit dwelling in you: and men still contradict! He goes
on to tell us how it comes to pass that life converts death into
itself by mortifying it. "Therefore, brethren," says he, "we are
debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye live
after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the spirit do mortify
the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live." [231] What else does this mean
but this: If ye live according to death, ye shall wholly die; but if
by living according to life ye mortify death, ye shall wholly live?
Footnotes
[229] Rom. viii. 10.
[230] Rom. viii. 11.
[231] Rom. viii. 12, 13.
Chapter 8 [VIII.]--Bodily Death from Adam's Sin.
When to the like purport he says: "By man came death, by man also the
resurrection of the dead," [232] in what other sense can the passage
be understood than of the death of the body; for having in view the
mention of this, he proceeded to speak of the resurrection of the
body, and affirmed it in a most earnest and solemn discourse? In these
words, addressed to the Corinthians: "By man came death, and by man
came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive," [233] --what other meaning is
indeed conveyed than in the verse in which he says to the Romans, "By
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin?" [234] Now they
will have it, that the death here meant is the death, not of the body,
but of the soul, on the pretence that another thing is spoken of to
the Corinthians, where they are quite unable to understand the death
of the soul, because the subject there treated is the resurrection of
the body, which is the antithesis of the death of the body. The
reason, moreover, why only death is here mentioned as caused by man,
and not sin also, is because the point of the discourse is not about
righteousness, which is the antithesis of sin, but about the
resurrection of the body, which is contrasted with the death of the
body.
Footnotes
[232] 1 Cor. xv. 21.
[233] 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22.
[234] Rom. v. 12.
Chapter 9 [IX.]--Sin Passes on to All Men by Natural Descent, and Not
Merely by Imitation.
You tell me in your letter, that they endeavour to twist into some new
sense the passage of the apostle, in which he says: "By one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin;" [235] yet you have not
informed me what they suppose to be the meaning of these words. But so
far as I have discovered from others, they think that the death which
is here mentioned is not the death of the body, which they will not
allow Adam to have deserved by his sin, but that of the soul, which
takes place in actual sin; and that this actual sin has not been
transmitted from the first man to other persons by natural descent,
but by imitation. Hence, likewise, they refuse to believe that in
infants original sin is remitted through baptism, for they contend
that no such original sin exists at all in people by their birth. But
if the apostle had wished to assert that sin entered into the world,
not by natural descent, but by imitation, he would have mentioned as
the first offender, not Adam indeed, but the devil, of whom it is
written, [236] that "he sinneth from the beginning;" of whom also we
read in the Book of Wisdom: "Nevertheless through the devil's envy
death entered into the world." [237] Now, forasmuch as this death came
upon men from the devil, not because they were propagated by him, but
because they imitated his example, it is immediately added: "And they
that do hold of his side do imitate him." [238] Accordingly, the
apostle, when mentioning sin and death together, which had passed by
natural descent from one upon all men, set him down as the introducer
thereof from whom the propagation of the human race took its
beginning.
Footnotes
[235] Rom. v. 12.
[236] 1 John iii. 8.
[237] Wisd. ii. 24.
[238] Ver. 25.
Chapter 10.--The Analogy of Grace.
No doubt all they imitate Adam who by disobedience transgress the
commandment of God; but he is one thing as an example to those who sin
because they choose; and another thing as the progenitor of all who
are born with sin. All His saints, also, imitate Christ in the pursuit
of righteousness; whence the same apostle, whom we have already
quoted, says: "Be ye imitators of me, as I am also of Christ." [239]
But besides this imitation, His grace works within us our illumination
and justification, by that operation concerning which the same
preacher of His [name] says: "Neither is he that planteth anything,
nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase." [240] For by
this grace He engrafts into His body even baptized infants, who
certainly have not yet become able to imitate any one. As therefore
He, in whom all are made alive, besides offering Himself as an example
of righteousness to those who imitate Him, gives also to those who
believe on Him the hidden grace of His Spirit, which He secretly
infuses even into infants; so likewise he, in whom all die, besides
being an example for imitation to those who wilfully transgress the
commandment of the Lord, depraved also in his own person all who come
of his stock by the hidden corruption of his own carnal concupiscence.
It is entirely on this account, and for no other reason, that the
apostle says: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and so passed upon all men; in which all have sinned." [241] Now
if I were to say this, they would raise an objection, and loudly
insist that I was incorrect both in expression and sense; for they
would perceive no sense in these words when spoken by an ordinary man,
except that sense which they refuse to see in the apostle. Since,
however, these are the words of him to whose authority and doctrine
they submit, they charge us with slowness of understanding, while they
endeavour to wrest to some unintelligible sense words which were
written in a clear and obvious purport. "By one man," says he, "sin
entered into the world, and death by sin." This indicates propagation,
not imitation; for if imitation were meant, he would have said, "By
the devil." But as no one doubts, he refers to that first man who is
called Adam: "And so," says he, "it passed upon all men."
Footnotes
[239] 1 Cor. xi. 1.
[240] 1 Cor. iii. 7.
[241] Rom. v. 12.
Chapter 11 [X.]--Distinction Between Actual and Original Sin. [242]
Again, in the clause which follows, "In which all have sinned," how
cautiously, rightly, and unambiguously is the statement expressed! For
if you understand that sin to be meant which by one man entered into
the world, "In which [sin] all have sinned," it is surely clear
enough, that the sins which are peculiar to every man, which they
themselves commit and which belong simply to them, mean one thing; and
that the one sin, in and by which all have sinned, means another
thing; since all were that one man. If, however, it be not the sin,
but that one man that is understood, "In which [one man] all have
sinned," what again can be plainer than even this clear statement? We
read, indeed, of those being justified in Christ who believe in Him,
by reason of the secret communion and inspiration of that spiritual
grace which makes every one who cleaves to the Lord "one spirit" with
Him, [243] although His saints also imitate His example; can I find,
however, any similar statement made of those who have imitated His
saints? Can any man be said to be justified in Paul or in Peter, or in
any one whatever of those excellent men whose authority stands high
among the people of God? We are no doubt said to be blessed in
Abraham, according to the passage in which it was said to him, "In
thee shall all nations be blessed" [244] --for Christ's sake, who is
his seed according to the flesh; which is still more clearly expressed
in the parallel passage: "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed." I
do not believe that any one can find it anywhere stated in the Holy
Scriptures, that a man has ever sinned or still sins "in the devil,"
although all wicked and impious men "imitate" him. The apostle,
however, has declared concerning the first man, that "in him all have
sinned;" [245] and yet there is still a contest about the propagation
of sin, and men oppose to it I know not what nebulous theory of
"imitation." [246]
Footnotes
[242] See below, Book iii. c. vii.; also in the De Nuptiis, c. v.;
also Epist. 186, and Serm. 165.
[243] 1 Cor. vi. 17.
[244] Gal. iii. 8: comp. Gen. xii. 3, xviii. 18, xxii. 18.
[245] Rom. v. 12.
[246] This was the Pelagian term, expressive of their dogma that
original sin stands in the following [or "imitation"] of Adam, instead
of being the fault and corruption of the nature of every man who is
naturally engendered of Adam's offspring; which doctrine is expressed
by Augustin's word, propagatio, "propagation."
Chapter 12.--The Law Could Not Take Away Sin.
Observe also what follows. Having said, "In which all have sinned," he
at once added, "For until the law, sin was in the world." [247] This
means that sin could not be taken away even by the law, which entered
that sin might the more abound, [248] whether it be the law of nature,
under which every man when arrived at years of discretion only
proceeds to add his own sins to original sin, or that very law which
Moses gave to the people. "For if there had been a law given which
could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the
law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise
by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. [249]
But sin is not imputed where there is no law." [250] Now what means
the phrase "is not imputed," but "is ignored," or "is not reckoned as
sin?" Although the Lord God does not Himself regard it as if it had
never been, since it is written: "As many as have sinned without law
shall also perish without law." [251]
Footnotes
[247] Rom. v. 13.
[248] Rom. v. 20.
[249] Gal. iii. 21, 22.
[250] Rom. v. 13.
[251] Rom. ii. 12.
Chapter 13 [XI.]--Meaning of the Apostle's Phrase "The Reign of
Death."
"Nevertheless," says he, "death reigned from Adam even unto Moses,"
[252] --that is to say, from the first man even to the very law which
was promulged by the divine authority, because even it was unable to
abolish the reign of death. Now death must be understood "to reign,"
whenever the guilt of sin [253] so dominates in men that it prevents
their attainment of that eternal life which is the only true life, and
drags them down even to the second death which is penally eternal.
This reign of death is only destroyed in any man by the Saviour's
grace, which wrought even in the saints of the olden time, all of
whom, though previous to the coming of Christ in the flesh, yet lived
in relation to His assisting grace, not to the letter of the law,
which only knew how to command, but not to help them. In the Old
Testament, indeed, that was hidden (conformably to the perfectly just
dispensation of the times) which is now revealed in the New Testament.
Therefore "death reigned from Adam unto Moses," in all who were not
assisted by the grace of Christ, that in them the kingdom of death
might be destroyed, "even in those who had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression," [254] that is, who had not yet
sinned of their own individual will, as Adam did, but had drawn from
him original sin, "who is the figure of him that was to come," [255]
because in him was constituted the form of condemnation to his future
progeny, who should spring from him by natural descent; so that from
one all men were born to a condemnation, from which there is no
deliverance but in the Saviour's grace. I am quite aware, indeed, that
several Latin copies of the Scriptures read the passage thus: "Death
reigned from Adam to Moses over them who have sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression;" [256] but even this version is
referred by those who so read it to the very same purport, for they
understood those who have sinned in him to have sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression; so that they are created in his
likeness, not only as men born of a man, but as sinners born of a
sinner, dying ones of a dying one, and condemned ones to a condemned
one. However, the Greek copies from which the Latin version was made,
have all, without exception or nearly so, the reading which I first
adduced.
Footnotes
[252] Rom. v. 14.
[253] Reatus peccati.
[254] Rom. v. 14.
[255] Rom. v. 14.
[256] Comp. Epist. 157, n. 19. [Some few Greek copies have come down
to us (e.g. 67**) which omit the "not," but no Latin copy (unless d*
be an exception), although other Latin writers (e.g. Ambrosiaster)
testify to their former existence.--W.]
Chapter 14.--Superabundance of Grace.
"But," says he, "not as the offence so also is the free gift. For if,
through the offence of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God,
and the gift by grace, which is by One Man, Jesus Christ, hath
abounded unto many." [257] Not many more, that is, many more men, for
there are not more persons justified than condemned; but it runs, much
more hath abounded; inasmuch as, while Adam produced sinners from his
one sin, Christ has by His grace procured free forgiveness even for
the sins which men have of their own accord added by actual
transgression to the original sin in which they were born. This he
states more clearly still in the sequel.
Footnotes
[257] Rom. v. 15.
Chapter 15 [XII.]--The One Sin Common to All Men.
But observe more attentively what he says, that "through the offence
of one, many are dead." For why should it be on account of the sin of
one, and not rather on account of their own sins, if this passage is
to be understood of imitation, and not of propagation? [258] But mark
what follows: "And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift;
for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the grace is of many
offences unto justification." [259] Now let them tell us, where there
is room in these words for imitation. "By one," says he, "to
condemnation." By one what except one sin? This, indeed, he clearly
implies in the words which he adds: "But the grace is of many offences
unto justification." Why, indeed, is the judgment from one offence to
condemnation, while the grace is from many offences to justification?
If original sin is a nullity, would it not follow, that not only grace
withdraws men from many offences to justification, but judgment leads
them to condemnation from many offences likewise? For assuredly grace
does not condone many offences, without judgment in like manner having
many offences to condemn. Else, if men are involved in condemnation
because of one offence, on the ground that all the offences which are
condemned were committed in imitation of that one offence; there is
the same reason why men should also be regarded as withdrawn from one
offence unto justification, inasmuch as all the offences which are
remitted to the justified were committed in imitation of that one
offence. But this most certainly was not the apostle's meaning, when
he said: "The judgment, indeed, was from one offence unto
condemnation, but the grace was from many offences unto
justification." We on our side, indeed, can understand the apostle,
and see that judgment is predicated of one offence unto condemnation
entirely on the ground that, even if there were in men nothing but
original sin, it would be sufficient for their condemnation. For
however much heavier will be their condemnation who have added their
own sins to the original offence (and it will be the more severe in
individual cases, in proportion to the sins of individuals); still,
even that sin alone which was originally derived unto men not only
excludes from the kingdom of God, which infants are unable to enter
(as they themselves allow), unless they have received the grace of
Christ before they die, but also alienates from salvation and
everlasting life, which cannot be anything else than the kingdom of
God, to which fellowship with Christ alone introduces us.
Footnotes
[258] See note to last word of ch. 11.
[259] Rom. v. 16.
Chapter 16 [XIII.]--How Death is by One and Life by One.
And from this we gather that we have derived from Adam, in whom we all
have sinned, not all our actual sins, but only original sin; whereas
from Christ, in whom we are all justified, we obtain the remission not
merely of that original sin, but of the rest of our sins also, which
we have added. Hence it runs: "Not as by the one that sinned, so also
is the free gift." For the judgment, certainly, from one sin, if it is
not remitted--and that the original sin--is capable of drawing us into
condemnation; whilst grace conducts us to justification from the
remission of many sins,--that is to say, not simply from the original
sin, but from all others also whatsoever.
Chapter 17.--Whom Sinners Imitate.
"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they
which receive abundance of grace and of righteousness shall reign in
life by one, even Jesus Christ." [260] Why did death reign on account
of the sin of one, unless it was that men were bound by the chain of
death in that one man in whom all men sinned, even though they added
no sins of their own? Otherwise it was not on account of the sin of
one that death reigned through one; rather it was on account of the
manifold offences of many, [operating] through each individual sinner.
For if the reason why men have died for the transgression of another
be, that they have imitated him by following him as their predecessor
in transgression, it must even result, and that "much more," that that
one died on account of the transgression of another, whom the devil so
preceded in transgression as himself to persuade him to commit the
transgression. Adam, however, used no influence to persuade his
followers; and the many who are said to have imitated him have, in
fact, either not heard of his existence at all or of his having
committed any such sin as is ascribed to him, or altogether disbelieve
it. How much more correctly, therefore, as I have already remarked,
[261] would the apostle have set forth the devil as the author, from
which "one" he would say that sin and death had passed upon all, if he
had in this passage meant to speak, not of propagation, but of
imitation? For there is much stronger reason for saying that Adam is
an imitator of the devil, since he had in him an actual instigator to
sin; if one may be an imitator even of him who has never used any such
persuasion, or of whom he is absolutely ignorant. But what is implied
in the clause, "They which receive abundance of grace and
righteousness," but that the grace of remission is given not only to
that sin in which all have sinned, but to those offences likewise
which men have actually committed besides; and that on these [men] so
great a righteousness is freely bestowed, that, although Adam gave way
to him who persuaded him to sin, they do not yield even to the
coercion of the same tempter? Again, what mean the words, "Much more
shall they reign in life," when the fact is, that the reign of death
drags many more down to eternal punishment, unless we understand those
to be really mentioned in both clauses, who pass from Adam to Christ,
in other words, from death to life; because in the life eternal they
shall reign without end, and thus exceed the reign of death which has
prevailed within them only temporarily and with a termination?
Footnotes
[260] Rom. v. 17.
[261] See above, ch. 9.
Chapter 18.--Only Christ Justifies.
"Therefore as by the offence of one upon all men to condemnation, even
so by the justification of One upon all men unto justification of
life." [262] This "offence of one," if we are bent on "imitation," can
only be the devil's offence. Since, however, it is manifestly spoken
in reference to Adam and not the devil, it follows that we have no
other alternative than to understand the principle of natural
propagation, and not that of imitation, to be here implied. [XIV.] Now
when he says in reference to Christ, "By the justification of one," he
has more expressly stated our doctrine than if he were to say, "By the
righteousness of one;" inasmuch as he mentions that justification
whereby Christ justifies the ungodly, and which he did not propose as
an object of imitation, for He alone is capable of effecting this. Now
it was quite competent for the apostle to say, and to say rightly: "Be
ye imitators of me, as I also am of Christ;" [263] but he could never
say: Be ye justified by me, as I also am by Christ;--since there may
be, and indeed actually are and have been, many who were righteous and
worthy of imitation; but no one is righteous and a justifier but
Christ alone. Whence it is said: "To the man that believeth on him
that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
[264] Now if any man had it in his power confidently to declare, "I
justify you," it would necessarily follow that he could also say,
"Believe in me." But it has never been in the power of any of the
saints of God to say this except the Saint of saints, [265] who said:
"Ye believe in God, believe also in me;" [266] so that, inasmuch as it
is He that justifies the ungodly, to the man who believes in him that
justifieth the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousness.
Footnotes
[262] Rom. v. 18.
[263] 1 Cor. iv. 16; xi. 1.
[264] Rom. iv. 5.
[265] Sanctus sanctorum.
[266] John xiv. 1.
Chapter 19 [XV.]--Sin is from Natural Descent, as Righteousness is
from Regeneration; How "All" Are Sinners Through Adam, and "All" Are
Just Through Christ.
Now if it is imitation only that makes men sinners through Adam, why
does not imitation likewise alone make men righteous through Christ?
"For," he says, "as by the offence of one upon all men to
condemnation; even so by the justification of one upon all men unto
justification of life." [267] [On the theory of imitation], then, the
"one" and the "one," here, must not be regarded as Adam and Christ,
but Adam and Abel. For although many sinners have preceded us in the
time of this present life, and have been imitated in their sin by
those who have sinned at a later date, yet they will have it, that
only Adam is mentioned as he in whom all have sinned by imitation,
since he was the first of men who sinned. And on the same principle,
Abel ought certainly to have been mentioned, as he "in which one" all
likewise are justified by imitation, inasmuch as he was himself the
first man who lived justly. If, however, it be thought necessary to
take into the account some critical period having relation to the
beginning of the New Testament, and Christ be taken as the leader of
the righteous and the object of their imitation, then Judas, who
betrayed Him, ought to be set down as the leader of the class of
sinners. Moreover, if Christ alone is He in whom all men are
justified, on the ground that it is not simply the imitation of His
example which makes men just, but His grace which regenerates men by
the Spirit, then also Adam is the only one in whom all have sinned, on
the ground that it is not the mere following of his evil example that
makes men sinners, but the penalty which generates through the flesh.
Hence the terms "all men" and "all men." For not they who are
generated through Adam are actually the very same as those who are
regenerated through Christ; but yet the language of the apostle is
strictly correct, because as none partakes of carnal generation except
through Adam, so no one shares in the spiritual except through Christ.
For if any could be generated in the flesh, yet not by Adam; and if in
like manner any could be generated in the Spirit, and not by Christ;
clearly "all" could not be spoken of either in the one class or in the
other. But these "all" [268] the apostle afterwards describes as
"many;" [269] for obviously, under certain circumstances, the "all"
may be but a few. The carnal generation, however, embraces "many," and
the spiritual generation also includes "many;" although the "many" of
the spiritual are less numerous than the "many" of the carnal. But as
the one embraces all men whatever, so the other includes all righteous
men; because as in the former case none can be a man without the
carnal generation, so in the other class no one can be a righteous man
without the spiritual generation; in both instances, therefore, there
are "many:" "For as by the disobedience of one man many were made
sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
[270]
Footnotes
[267] Rom. v. 18.
[268] The word is "all" in ver. 18.
[269] See ver. 19.
[270] Rom. v. 19.
Chapter 20.--Original Sin Alone is Contracted by Natural Birth.
"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound." [271] This
addition to original sin men now made of their own wilfulness, not
through Adam; but even this is done away and remedied by Christ,
because "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin
hath reigned unto death" [272] --even that sin which men have not
derived from Adam, but have added of their own will--"even so might
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life." [273] There is,
however, other righteousness apart from Christ, as there are other
sins apart from Adam. Therefore, after saying, "As sin hath reigned
unto death," he did not add in the same clause "by one," or "by Adam,"
because he had already spoken of that sin which was abounding when the
law entered, and which, of course, was not original sin, but the sin
of man's own wilful commission. But after he has said: "Even so might
grace also reign through righteousness unto eternal life," he at once
adds, "through Jesus Christ our Lord;" [274] because, whilst by the
generation of the flesh only that sin is contracted which is original;
yet by the regeneration of the Spirit there is effected the remission
not of original sin only, but also of the sins of man's own voluntary
and actual commission.
Footnotes
[271] Rom. v. 20.
[272] Rom. v. 21.
[273] Rom. v. 21.
[274] Rom. v. 21.
Chapter 21 [XVI.]--Unbaptized Infants Damned, But Most Lightly; [275]
The Penalty of Adam's Sin, the Grace of His Body Lost.
It may therefore be correctly affirmed, that such infants as quit the
body without being baptized will be involved in the mildest
condemnation of all. That person, therefore, greatly deceives both
himself and others, who teaches that they will not be involved in
condemnation; whereas the apostle says: "Judgment from one offence to
condemnation," [276] and again a little after: "By the offence of one
upon all persons to condemnation." [277] When, indeed, Adam sinned by
not obeying God, then his body--although it was a natural and mortal
body--lost the grace whereby it used in every part of it to be
obedient to the soul. Then there arose in men affections common to the
brutes which are productive of shame, and which made man ashamed of
his own nakedness. [278] Then also, by a certain disease which was
conceived in men from a suddenly injected and pestilential corruption,
it was brought about that they lost that stability of life in which
they were created, and, by reason of the mutations which they
experienced in the stages of life, issued at last in death. However
many were the years they lived in their subsequent life, yet they
began to die on the day when they received the law of death, because
they kept verging towards old age. For that possesses not even a
moment's stability, but glides away without intermission, which by
constant change perceptibly advances to an end which does not produce
perfection, but utter exhaustion. Thus, then, was fulfilled what God
had spoken: "In the day that ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die."
[279] As a consequence, then, of this disobedience of the flesh and
this law of sin and death, whoever is born of the flesh has need of
spiritual regeneration--not only that he may reach the kingdom of God,
but also that he may be freed from the damnation of sin. Hence men are
on the one hand born in the flesh liable to sin and death from the
first Adam, and on the other hand are born again in baptism associated
with the righteousness and eternal life of the second Adam; even as it
is written in the book of Ecclesiasticus: "Of the woman came the
beginning of sin, and through her we all die." [280] Now whether it be
said of the woman or of Adam, both statements pertain to the first
man; since (as we know) the woman is of the man, and the two are one
flesh. Whence also it is written: "And they twain shall be one flesh;
wherefore," the Lord says, "they are no more twain, but one flesh."
[281]
Footnotes
[275] See Augustin's Enchirid. c. 93, and Contra Julianum, v. 11.
[276] Rom. v. 16.
[277] Ver. 18.
[278] Gen. iii. 10.
[279] Gen. ii. 17.
[280] Ecclus. xxv. 24.
[281] Matt. xix. 5, 6.
Chapter 22 [XVII.]--To Infants Personal Sin is Not to Be Attributed.
They, therefore, who say that the reason why infants are baptized, is,
that they may have the remission of the sin which they have themselves
committed in their life, not what they have derived from Adam, may be
refuted without much difficulty. For whenever these persons shall have
reflected within themselves a little, uninfluenced by any polemical
spirit, on the absurdity of their statement, how unworthy it is, in
fact, of serious discussion, they will at once change their opinion.
But if they will not do this, we shall not so completely despair of
men's common sense, as to have any fears that they will induce others
to adopt their views. They are themselves driven to adopt their
opinion, if I am not mistaken, by their prejudice for some other
theory; and it is because they feel themselves obliged to allow that
sins are remitted to the baptized, and are unwilling to allow that the
sin was derived from Adam which they admit to be remitted to infants,
that they have been obliged to charge infancy itself with actual sin;
as if by bringing this charge against infancy a man could become the
more secure himself, when accused and unable to answer his assailant!
However, let us, as I suggested, pass by such opponents as these;
indeed, we require neither words nor quotations of Scripture to prove
the sinlessness of infants, so far as their conduct in life is
concerned; this life they spend, such is the recency of their birth,
within their very selves, since it escapes the cognizance of human
perception, which has no data or support whereon to sustain any
controversy on the subject.
Chapter 23 [XVIII.]--He Refutes Those Who Allege that Infants are
Baptized Not for the Remission of Sins, But for the Obtaining of the
Kingdom of Heaven. [282]
But those persons raise a question, and appear to adduce an argument
deserving of consideration and discussion, who say that new-born
infants receive baptism not for the remission of sin, but that, since
their procreation is not spiritual, they may be created in Christ, and
become partakers of the kingdom of heaven, and by the same means
children and heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. And yet, when
you ask them, whether those that are not baptized, and are not made
joint-heirs with Christ and partakers of the kingdom of heaven, have
at any rate the blessing of eternal life in the resurrection of the
dead, they are extremely perplexed, and find no way out of their
difficulty. For what Christian is there who would allow it to be said,
that any one could attain to eternal salvation without being born
again in Christ,--[a result] which He meant to be effected through
baptism, at the very time when such a sacrament was purposely
instituted for regenerating in the hope of eternal salvation? Whence
the apostle says: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to His mercy He saved us by the laver [283] of
regeneration." [284] This salvation, however, he says, consists in
hope, while we live here below, where he says, "For we are saved by
hope: but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why
doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we
with patience wait for it." [285] Who then could be so bold as to
affirm, that without the regeneration of which the apostle speaks,
infants could attain to eternal salvation, as if Christ died not for
them? For "Christ died for the ungodly." [286] As for them, however,
who (as is manifest) never did an ungodly act in all their own life,
if also they are not bound by any bond of sin in their original
nature, how did He die for them, who died for the ungodly? If they
were hurt by no malady of original sin, how is it they are carried to
the Physician Christ, for the express purpose of receiving the
sacrament of eternal salvation, by the pious anxiety of those who run
to Him? Why rather is it not said to them in the Church: Take hence
these innocents: "they that are whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick;"--Christ "came not to call the righteous, but sinners?"
[287] There never has been heard, there never is heard, there never
will be heard in the Church, such a fiction concerning Christ.
Footnotes
[282] See below, c. 26; also De Peccato orig. c. 19-24; also Serm.
294.
[283] Lavacrum.
[284] Tit. iii. 5.
[285] Rom. viii. 24, 25.
[286] Rom. v. 6.
[287] Luke v. 31, 32.
Chapter 24 [XIX.]--Infants Saved as Sinners.
And let no one suppose that infants ought to be brought to baptism, on
the ground that, as they are not sinners, so they are not righteous;
how then do some remind us that the Lord commends this tender age as
meritorious; saying, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and
forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven?" [288] For if
this ["of such"] is not said because of likeness in humility (since
humility makes [us] children), but because of the laudable life of
children, then of course infants must be righteous persons; otherwise,
it could not be correctly said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven,"
for heaven can only belong to the righteous. But perhaps, after all,
it is not a right opinion of the meaning of the Lord's words, to make
Him commend the life of infants when He says, "Of such is the kingdom
of heaven;" inasmuch as that may be their true sense, which makes
Christ adduce the tender age of infancy as a likeness of humility.
Even so, however, perhaps we must revert to the tenet which I
mentioned just now, that infants ought to be baptized, because,
although they are not sinners, they are yet not righteous. But when He
had said: "I came not to call the righteous," as if responding to
this, Whom, then, didst Thou come to call? immediately He goes on to
say: "--but sinners to repentance." Therefore it follows, that,
however righteous they may be, if also they are not sinners, He came
not to call them, who said of Himself: "I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners." They therefore seem, not vainly only, but
even wickedly to rush to the baptism of Him who does not invite
them,--an opinion which God forbid that we should entertain. He calls
them, then, as a Physician who is not needed for those that are whole,
but for those that are sick; and who came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Now, inasmuch as infants are not held bound
by any sins of their own actual life, it is the guilt of original sin
which is healed in them by the grace of Him who saves them by the
laver of regeneration.
Footnotes
[288] Matt. xix. 14.
Chapter 25.--Infants are Described as Believers and as Penitents. Sins
Alone Separate Between God and Men.
Some one will say: How then are mere infants called to repentance? How
can such as they repent of anything? The answer to this is: If they
must not be called penitents because they have not the sense of
repenting, neither must they be called believers, because they
likewise have not the sense of believing. But if they are rightly
called believers, [289] because they in a certain sense profess faith
by the words of their parents, why are they not also held to be before
that penitents when they are shown to renounce the devil and this
world by the profession again of the same parents? The whole of this
is done in hope, in the strength of the sacrament and of the divine
grace which the Lord has bestowed upon the Church. But yet who knows
not that the baptized infant fails to be benefited from what he
received as a little child, if on coming to years of reason he fails
to believe and to abstain from unlawful desires? If, however, the
infant departs from the present life after he has received baptism,
the guilt in which he was involved by original sin being done away, he
shall be made perfect in that light of truth, which, remaining
unchangeable for evermore, illumines the justified in the presence of
their Creator. For sins alone separate between men and God; and these
are done away by Christ's grace, through whom, as Mediator, we are
reconciled, when He justifies the ungodly.
Footnotes
[289] See below, c. 26 and 40; also Book iii. c. 2; also Epist. 98,
and Serm. 294.
Chapter 26 [XX.]--No One, Except He Be Baptized, Rightly Comes to the
Table of the Lord.
Now they take alarm from the statement of the Lord, when He says,
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;" [290]
because in His own explanation of the passage He affirms, "Except a
man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God." [291] And so they try to ascribe to unbaptized
infants, by the merit of their innocence, the gift of salvation and
eternal life, but at the same time, owing to their being unbaptized,
to exclude them from the kingdom of heaven. But how novel and
astonishing is such an assumption, as if there could possibly be
salvation and eternal life without heirship with Christ, without the
kingdom of heaven! Of course they have their refuge, whither to escape
and hide themselves, because the Lord does not say, Except a man be
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot have life, but--"he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God." If indeed He had said the other, there
could have risen not a moment's doubt. Well, then, let us remove the
doubt; let us now listen to the Lord, and not to men's notions and
conjectures; let us, I say, hear what the Lord says--not indeed
concerning the sacrament of the laver, but concerning the sacrament of
His own holy table, to which none but a baptized person has a right to
approach: "Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, ye shall have no
life in you." [292] What do we want more? What answer to this can be
adduced, unless it be by that obstinacy which ever resists the
constancy of manifest truth?
Footnotes
[290] John iii. 3.
[291] Ver. 5.
[292] John vi. 53.
Chapter 27.--Infants Must Feed on Christ.
Will, however, any man be so bold as to say that this statement has no
relation to infants, and that they can have life in them without
partaking of His body and blood--on the ground that He does not say,
Except one eat, but "Except ye eat;" as if He were addressing those
who were able to hear and to understand, which of course infants
cannot do? But he who says this is inattentive; because, unless all
are embraced in the statement, that without the body and the blood of
the Son of man men cannot have life, it is to no purpose that even the
elder age is solicitous of it. For if you attend to the mere words,
and not to the meaning, of the Lord as He speaks, this passage may
very well seem to have been spoken merely to the people whom He
happened at the moment to be addressing; because He does not say,
Except one eat; but Except ye eat. What also becomes of the statement
which He makes in the same context on this very point: "The bread that
I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world?" [293] For, it is
according to this statement, that we find that sacrament pertains also
to us, who were not in existence at the time the Lord spoke these
words; for we cannot possibly say that we do not belong to "the
world," for the life of which Christ gave His flesh. Who indeed can
doubt that in the term world all persons are indicated who enter the
world by being born? For, as He says in another passage, "The children
of this world beget and are begotten." [294] From all this it follows,
that even for the life of infants was His flesh given, which He gave
for the life of the world; and that even they will not have life if
they eat not the flesh of the Son of man.
Footnotes
[293] John vi. 51.
[294] Generant et generantur; Luke xx. 34.
Chapter 28.--Baptized Infants, of the Faithful; Unbaptized, of the
Lost.
Hence also that other statement: "The Father loveth the Son, and hath
given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life; while he that believeth not the Son shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." [295] Now in which of
these classes must we place infants--amongst those who believe on the
Son, or amongst those who believe not the Son? In neither, say some,
because, as they are not yet able to believe, so must they not be
deemed unbelievers. This, however, the rule of the Church does not
indicate, for it joins baptized infants to the number of the faithful.
Now if they who are baptized are, by virtue of the excellence and
administration of so great a sacrament, nevertheless reckoned in the
number of the faithful, although by their own heart and mouth they do
not literally perform what appertains to the action of faith and
confession; surely they who have lacked the sacrament must be classed
amongst those who do not believe on the Son, and therefore, if they
shall depart this life without this grace, they will have to encounter
what is written concerning such--they shall not have life, but the
wrath of God abideth on them. Whence could this result to those who
clearly have no sins of their own, if they are not held to be
obnoxious to original sin?
Footnotes
[295] John iii. 35, 36.
Chapter 29 [XXI.]--It is an Inscrutable Mystery Why Some are Saved,
and Others Not.
Now there is much significance in that He does not say, "The wrath of
God shall come upon him," but "abideth on him." For from this wrath
(in which we are all involved under sin, and of which the apostle
says, "For we too were once by nature the children of wrath, even as
others" [296] ) nothing delivers us but the grace of God, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. The reason why this grace comes upon one man
and not on another may be hidden, but it cannot be unjust. For "is
there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." [297] But we must first
bend our necks to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, in order that
we may each arrive at knowledge and understanding through faith. For
it is not said in vain, "Thy judgments are a great deep." [298] The
profundity of this "deep" the apostle, as if with a feeling of dread,
notices in that exclamation: "O the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and the knowledge of God!" He had indeed previously pointed out
the meaning of this marvellous depth, when he said: "For God hath
concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all."
[299] Then struck, as it were, with a horrible fear of this deep: "O
the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!
how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For
who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His
counsellor?or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed
unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and in Him, are all
things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." [300] How utterly
insignificant, then, is our faculty for discussing the justice of
God's judgments, and for the consideration of His gratuitous grace,
which, as men have no prevenient merits for deserving it, cannot be
partial or unrighteous, and which does not disturb us when it is
bestowed upon unworthy men, as much as when it is denied to those who
are equally unworthy!
Footnotes
[296] Eph. ii. 3.
[297] Rom. ix. 14.
[298] Ps. xxxvi. 6.
[299] Rom. xi. 32.
[300] Rom. xi. 33-36.
Chapter 30.--Why One is Baptized and Another Not, Not Otherwise
Inscrutable.
Now those very persons, who think it unjust that infants which depart
this life without the grace of Christ should be deprived not only of
the kingdom of God, into which they themselves admit that none but
such as are regenerated through baptism can enter, but also of eternal
life and salvation,--when they ask how it can be just that one man
should be freed from original sin and another not, although the
condition of both of them is the same, might answer their own
question, in accordance with their own opinion of how it can be so
frequently just and right that one should have baptism administered to
him whereby to enter into the kingdom of God, and another not be so
favoured, although the case of both is alike. For if the question
disturbs him, why, of the two persons, who are both equally sinners by
nature, the one is loosed from that bond, on whom baptism is
conferred, and the other is not released, on whom such grace is not
bestowed; why is he not similarly disturbed by the fact that of two
persons, innocent by nature, one receives baptism, whereby he is able
to enter into the kingdom of God, and the other does not receive it,
so that he is incapable of approaching the kingdom of God? Now in both
cases one recurs to the apostle's outburst of wonder "O the depth of
the riches!" Again, let me be informed, why out of the body of
baptized infants themselves, one is taken away, so that his
understanding undergoes no change from a wicked life, [301] and the
other survives, destined to become an impious man? Suppose both were
carried off, would not both enter the kingdom of heaven? And yet there
is no unrighteousness with God. [302] How is it that no one is moved,
no one is driven to the expression of wonder amidst such depths, by
the circumstance that some children are vexed by the unclean spirit,
while others experience no such pollution, and others again, as
Jeremiah, are sanctified even in their mother's womb; [303] whereas
all men, if there is original sin, are equally guilty; or else equally
innocent if there is original sin? Whence this great diversity, except
in the fact that God's judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past
finding out?
Footnotes
[301] Wisdom iv. 11.
[302] Rom. ix. 14.
[303] Jer. i. 5.
Chapter 31 [XXII.]--He Refutes Those Who Suppose that Souls, on
Account of Sins Committed in Another State, are Thrust into Bodies
Suited to Their Merits, in Which They are More or Less Tormented.
Perhaps, however, the now exploded and rejected opinion must be
resumed, that souls which once sinned in their heavenly abode, descend
by stages and degrees to bodies suited to their deserts, and, as a
penalty for their previous life, are more or less tormented by
corporeal chastisements. To this opinion Holy Scripture indeed
presents a most manifest contradiction; for when recommending divine
grace, it says: "For the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said, The
elder shall serve the younger." [304] And yet they who entertain such
an opinion are actually unable to escape the perplexities of this
question, but, embarrassed and straitened by them, are compelled to
exclaim like others, "O the depth!" For whence does it come to pass
that a person shall from his earliest boyhood show greater moderation,
mental excellence, and temperance, and shall to a great extent conquer
lust, shall hate avarice, detest luxury, and rise to a greater
eminence and aptitude in the other virtues, and yet live in such a
place as to be unable to hear the grace of Christ preached?--for "how
shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall
they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they
hear without a preacher?" [305] While another man, although of a slow
mind, addicted to lust, and covered with disgrace and crime, shall be
so directed as to hear, and believe, and be baptized, and be taken
away,--or, if permitted to remain longer here, lead the rest of his
life in a manner that shall bring him praise? Now where did these two
persons acquire such diverse deserts,--I do not say, that the one
should believe and the other not believe, for that is a matter for a
man's own will; but that the one should hear in order to believe, and
that the other should not hear, for this is not within man's power?
Where, I say, did they acquire diverse deserts? If they had indeed
passed any part of their life in heaven, so as to be thrust down, or
to sink down, to this world, and to tenant such bodily receptacles as
are congruous to their own former life, then of course that man ought
to be supposed to have led the better life previous to his present
mortal body, who did not much deserve to be burdened with it, so as
both to have a good disposition, and to be importuned by milder
desires which he could easily overcome; and yet he did not deserve to
have that grace preached to him whereby alone he could be delivered
from the ruin of the second death. Whereas the other, who was hampered
with a grosser body, as a penalty--so they suppose--for worse deserts,
and was accordingly possessed of obtuser affections, whilst he was in
the violent ardour of his lust succumbing to the snares of the flesh,
and by his wicked life aggravating his former sins, which had brought
him to such a pass, by a still more abandoned course of earthly
pleasures,--either heard upon the cross, "To-day shalt thou be with me
in paradise," [306] or else joined himself to some apostle, by whose
preaching he became a changed man, and was saved by the washing of
regeneration,--so that where sin once abounded, grace did much more
abound. I am at a loss to know what answer they can give to this who
wish to maintain God's righteousness by human conjectures, and,
knowing nothing of the depths of grace, have woven webs of improbable
fable.
Footnotes
[304] Rom. ix. 11, 12.
[305] Rom. x. 14.
[306] Luke xxiii. 43.
Chapter 32.--The Case of Certain Idiots and Simpletons.
Now a good deal may be said of men's strange vocations,--either such
as we have read about, or have experienced ourselves,--which go to
overthrow the opinion of those persons who think that, previous to the
possession of their bodies, men's souls passed through certain lives
peculiar to themselves, in which they must come to this, and
experience in the present life either good or evil, according to the
difference of their individual deserts. My anxiety, however, to bring
this work to an end does not permit me to dwell longer on these
topics. But on one point, which among many I have found to be a very
strange one, I will not be silent. If we follow those persons who
suppose that souls are oppressed with earthly bodies in a greater or a
less degree of grossness, according to the deserts of the life which
had been passed in celestial bodies previous to the assumption of the
present one, who would not affirm that those had sinned previous to
this life with an especial amount of enormity, who deserve so to lose
all mental light, that they are born with faculties akin to brute
animals,--who are (I will not say most slow in intellect, for this is
very commonly said of others also, but) so silly as to make a show of
their fatuity for the amusement of clever people, even with idiotic
gestures, [307] and whom the vulgar call, by a name, derived from the
Greek, Moriones? [308] And yet there was once a certain person of this
class, who was so Christian, that although he was patient to the
degree of strange folly with any amount of injury to himself, he was
yet so impatient of any insult to the name of Christ, or, in his own
person, to the religion with which he was imbued, that he could never
refrain, whenever his gay and clever audience proceeded to blaspheme
the sacred name, as they sometimes would in order to provoke his
patience, from pelting them with stones; and on these occasions he
would show no favour even to persons of rank. Well, now, such persons
are predestinated and brought into being, as I suppose, in order that
those who are able should understand that God's grace and the Spirit,
"which bloweth where it listeth," [309] does not pass over any kind of
capacity in the sons of mercy, nor in like manner does it pass over
any kind of capacity in the children of Gehenna, so that "he that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." [310] They, however, who affirm
that souls severally receive different earthly bodies, more or less
gross according to the merits of their former life, and that their
abilities as men vary according to the self-same merits, so that some
minds are sharper and others more obtuse, and that the grace of God is
also dispensed for the liberation of men from their sins according to
the deserts of their former existence:--what will they have to say
about this man? How will they be able to attribute to him a previous
life of so disgraceful a character that he deserved to be born an
idiot, and at the same time of so highly meritorious a character as to
entitle him to a preference in the award of the grace of Christ over
many men of the acutest intellect?
Footnotes
[307] We here follow the reading cerriti; other readings are,--curati
(with studied folly), cirrati (with effeminate foppery), and citrati
(decking themselves with citrus leaves).
[308] That is, "fools," from the Greek moros
[309] John iii. 8.
[310] 1 Cor. i. 31.
Chapter 33.--Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer Even of Infants.
Let us therefore give in and yield our assent to the authority of Holy
Scripture, which knows not how either to be deceived or to deceive;
and as we do not believe that men as yet unborn have done any good or
evil for raising a difference in their moral deserts, so let us by no
means doubt that all men are under sin, which came into the world by
one man and has passed through unto all men; and from which nothing
frees us but the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. [XXIII.]
His remedial advent is needed by those that are sick, not by the
whole: for He came not to call the righteous, but sinners; and into
His kingdom shall enter no one that is not born again of water and the
Spirit; nor shall any one attain salvation and eternal life except in
His kingdom,--since the man who believes not in the Son, and eats not
His flesh, shall not have life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.
Now from this sin, from this sickness, from this wrath of God (of
which by nature they are children who have original sin, even if they
have none of their own on account of their youth), none delivers them,
except the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world; [311]
except the Physician, who came not for the sake of the sound, but of
the sick; except the Saviour, concerning whom it was said to the human
race: "Unto you there is born this day a Saviour;" [312] except the
Redeemer, by whose blood our debt is blotted out. For who would dare
to say that Christ is not the Saviour and Redeemer of infants? But
from what does He save them, if there is no malady of original sin
within them? From what does He redeem them, if through their origin
from the first man they are not sold under sin? Let there be then no
eternal salvation promised to infants out of our own opinion, without
Christ's baptism; for none is promised in that Holy Scripture which is
to be preferred to all human authority and opinion.
Footnotes
[311] John i. 29.
[312] Luke ii. 11.
Chapter 34 [XXIV.]--Baptism is Called Salvation, and the Eucharist,
Life, by the Christians of Carthage.
The Christians of Carthage have an excellent name for the sacraments,
when they say that baptism is nothing else than "salvation," and the
sacrament of the body of Christ nothing else than "life." Whence,
however, was this derived, but from that primitive, as I suppose, and
apostolic tradition, by which the Churches of Christ maintain it to be
an inherent principle, that without baptism and partaking of the
supper of the Lord it is impossible for any man to attain either to
the kingdom of God or to salvation and everlasting life? So much also
does Scripture testify, according to the words which we already
quoted. For wherein does their opinion, who designate baptism by the
term salvation, differ from what is written: "He saved us by the
washing of regeneration?" [313] or from Peter's statement: "The like
figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us?" [314] And what
else do they say who call the sacrament of the Lord's Supper life,
than that which is written: "I am the living bread which came down
from heaven;" [315] and "The bread that I shall give is my flesh, for
the life of the world;" [316] and "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son
of man, and drink His blood, ye shall have no life in you?" [317] If,
therefore, as so many and such divine witnesses agree, neither
salvation nor eternal life can be hoped for by any man without baptism
and the Lord's body and blood, it is vain to promise these blessings
to infants without them. Moreover, if it be only sins that separate
man from salvation and eternal life, there is nothing else in infants
which these sacraments can be the means of removing, but the guilt of
sin,--respecting which guilty nature it is written, that "no one is
clean, not even if his life be only that of a day." [318] Whence also
that exclamation of the Psalmist: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
and in sin did my mother conceive me!" [319] This is either said in
the person of our common humanity, or if of himself only David speaks,
it does not imply that he was born of fornication, but in lawful
wedlock. We therefore ought not to doubt that even for infants yet to
be baptized was that precious blood shed, which previous to its actual
effusion was so given, and applied in the sacrament, that it was said,
"This is my blood, which shall be shed for many for the remission of
sins." [320] Now they who will not allow that they are under sin, deny
that there is any liberation. For what is there that men are liberated
from, if they are held to be bound by no bondage of sin?
Footnotes
[313] Tit. iii. 5.
[314] 1 Pet. iii. 21.
[315] John vi. 51.
[316] John vi. 51.
[317] John vi. 53.
[318] Job xiv. 4.
[319] Ps. li. 5.
[320] Matt. xxvi. 28.
Chapter 35.--Unless Infants are Baptized, They Remain in Darkness.
"I am come," says Christ, "a light into the world, that whosoever
believeth on me should not abide in darkness." [321] Now what does
this passage show us, but that every person is in darkness who does
not believe on Him, and that it is by believing on Him that he escapes
from this permanent state of darkness? What do we understand by the
darkness but sin? And whatever else it may embrace in its meaning, at
any rate he who believes not in Christ will "abide in
darkness,"--which, of course, is a penal state, not, as the darkness
of the night, necessary for the refreshment of living beings. [XXV.]
So that infants, unless they pass into the number of believers through
the sacrament which was divinely instituted for this purpose, will
undoubtedly remain in this darkness.
Footnotes
[321] John xii. 46.
Chapter 36.--Infants Not Enlightened as Soon as They are Born.
Some, however, understand that as soon as children are born they are
enlightened; and they derive this opinion from the passage: "That was
the true Light, which lighteth every one that cometh into the world."
[322] Well, if this be the case, it is quite astonishing how it can be
that those who are thus enlightened by the only-begotten Son, who was
in the beginning the Word with God, and [Himself] God, are not
admitted into the kingdom of God, nor are heirs of God and joint-heirs
with Christ. For that such an inheritance is not bestowed upon them
except through baptism, even they who hold the opinion in question do
acknowledge. Then, again, if they are (though already illuminated)
thus unfit for entrance into the kingdom of God, they at all events
ought gladly to receive the baptism, by which they are fitted for it;
but, strange to say, we see how reluctant infants are to submit to
baptism, resisting even with strong crying. And this ignorance of
theirs we think lightly of at their time of life, so that we fully
administer the sacraments, which we know to be serviceable to them,
even although they struggle against them. And why, too, does the
apostle say, "Be not children in understanding," [323] if their minds
have been already enlightened with that true Light, which is the Word
of God?
Footnotes
[322] John i. 9.
[323] 1 Cor. xiv. 20.
Chapter 37.--How God Enlightens Every Person.
That statement, therefore, which occurs in the gospel, "That was the
true Light, which lighteth every one that cometh into the world,"
[324] has this meaning, that no man is illuminated except with that
Light of the truth, which is God; so that no person must think that he
is enlightened by him whom he listens to as a learner, although that
instructor happen to be--I will not say, any great man--but even an
angel himself. For the word of truth is applied to man externally by
the ministry of a bodily voice, but yet "neither is he that planteth
any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the
increase." [325] Man indeed hears the speaker, be he man or angel, but
in order that he may perceive and know that what is said is true, his
mind is internally besprinkled with that light which remains for ever,
and which shines even in darkness. But just as the sun is not seen by
the blind, though they are clothed as it were with its rays, so is the
light of truth not understood by the darkness of folly.
Footnotes
[324] John i. 9.
[325] 1 Cor. iii. 7.
Chapter 38.--What "Lighteth" Means.
But why, after saying, "which lighteth every man," should he add,
"that cometh into the world," [326] --the clause which has suggested
the opinion that He enlightens the minds of newly-born babes while the
birth of their bodies from their mother's womb is still a recent
thing? The words, no doubt, are so placed in the Greek, that they may
be understood to express that the light itself "cometh into the
world." [327] If, nevertheless, the clause must be taken as expressing
the man who cometh into this world, I suppose that it is either a
simple phrase, like many others one finds in the Scriptures, which may
be removed without impairing the general sense; or else, if it is to
be regarded as a distinctive addition, it was perhaps inserted in
order to distinguish spiritual illumination from that bodily one which
enlightens the eyes of the flesh either by means of the luminaries of
the sky, or by the lights of ordinary fire. So that he mentioned the
inner man as coming into the world, because the outward man is of a
corporeal nature, just as this world itself; as if he said, "Which
lighteth every man that cometh into the body," in accordance with that
which is written: "I obtained a good spirit, and I came in a body
undefiled." [328] Or again, the passage, "Which lighteth every one
that cometh into the world,"--if it was added for the sake of
expressing some distinction,--might perhaps mean: Which lighteth every
inner man, because the inner man, when he becomes truly wise, is
enlightened only by Him who is the true Light. Or, once more, if the
intention was to designate reason herself, which causes the human soul
to be called rational (and this reason, although as yet quiet and as
it were asleep, for all that lies hidden in infants, innate and, so to
speak, implanted), by the term illumination, as if it were the
creation of an inner eye, then it cannot be denied that it is made
when the soul is created; and there is no absurdity in supposing this
to take place when the human being comes into the world. But yet,
although his eye is now created, he himself must needs remain in
darkness, if he does not believe in Him who said: "I am come a Light
into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in
darkness." [329] And that this takes place in the case of infants,
through the sacrament of baptism, is not doubted by mother Church,
which uses for them the heart and mouth of a mother, that they may be
imbued with the sacred mysteries, seeing that they cannot as yet with
their own heart "believe unto righteousness," nor with their own mouth
make "confession unto salvation." [330] There is not indeed a man
among the faithful, who would hesitate to call such infants believers
merely from the circumstance that such a designation is derived from
the act of believing; for although incapable of such an act
themselves, yet others are sponsors for them in the sacraments.
Footnotes
[326] John i. 9.
[327] ;!O [scil. to phos] photizei panta anthropon erchomenon eis ton
kosmon.
[328] Wisd. viii. 19, 20.
[329] John xii. 46.
[330] Rom. x. 10.
Chapter 39 [XXVI.]--The Conclusion Drawn, that All are Involved in
Original Sin.
It would be tedious, were we fully to discuss, at similar length,
every testimony bearing on the question. I suppose it will be the more
convenient course simply to collect the passages together which may
turn up, or such as shall seem sufficient for manifesting the truth,
that the Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, and, in the form of a
servant, became obedient even to the death of the cross, [331] for no
other reason than, by this dispensation of His most merciful grace, to
give life to all those to whom, as engrafted members of His body, He
becomes Head for laying hold upon the kingdom of heaven: to save,
free, redeem, and enlighten them,--who had aforetime been involved in
the death, infirmities, servitude, captivity, and darkness of sin,
under the dominion of the devil, the author of sin: and thus to become
the Mediator between God and man, by whom (after the enmity of our
ungodly condition had been terminated by His gracious help) we might
be reconciled to God unto eternal life, having been rescued from the
eternal death which threatened such as us. When this shall have been
made clear by more than sufficient evidence, it will follow that those
persons cannot be concerned with that dispensation of Christ which is
executed by His humiliation, who have no need of life, and salvation,
and deliverance, and redemption, and illumination. And inasmuch as to
this belongs baptism, in which we are buried with Christ, in order to
be incorporated into Him as His members (that is, as those who believe
in Him): it of course follows that baptism is unnecessary for them,
who have no need of the benefit of that forgiveness and reconciliation
which is acquired through a Mediator. Now, seeing that they admit the
necessity of baptizing infants,--finding themselves unable to
contravene that authority of the universal Church, which has been
unquestionably handed down by the Lord and His apostles,--they cannot
avoid the further concession, that infants require the same benefits
of the Mediator, in order that, being washed by the sacrament and
charity of the faithful, and thereby incorporated into the body of
Christ, which is the Church, they may be reconciled to God, and so
live in Him, and be saved, and delivered, and redeemed, and
enlightened. But from what, if not from death, and the vices, and
guilt, and thraldom, and darkness of sin? And, inasmuch as they do not
commit any sin in the tender age of infancy by their actual
transgression, original sin only is left.
Footnotes
[331] Phil. ii. 8.
Chapter 40 [XXVII.]--A Collection of Scripture Testimonies. From the
Gospels.
This reasoning will carry more weight, after I have collected the mass
of Scripture testimonies which I have undertaken to adduce. We have
already quoted: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." [332]
To the same purport [the Lord] says, on entering the home of Zaccheus:
"To-day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son
of Abraham; for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which
was lost." [333] The same truth is declared in the parable of the lost
sheep and the ninety and nine which were left until the missing one
was sought and found; [334] as it is also in the parable of the lost
one among the ten silver coins. [335] Whence, as He said, "it behoved
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." [336] Mark likewise, at
the end of his Gospel, tells us how that the Lord said: "Go ye into
all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that
believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not
shall be damned." [337] Now, who can be unaware that, in the case of
infants, being baptized is to believe, and not being baptized is not
to believe? From the Gospel of John we have already adduced some
passages. However, I must also request your attention to the
following: John Baptist says of Christ, "Behold the Lamb of God,
Behold Him which taketh away the sin of the world;" [338] and He too
says of Himself, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish." [339] Now, inasmuch as infants are only able to become His
sheep by baptism, it must needs come to pass that they perish if they
are not baptized, because they will not have that eternal life which
He gives to His sheep. So in another passage He says: "I am the way,
the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
[340]
Footnotes
[332] Luke v. 32.
[333] Luke xix. 9, 10.
[334] Luke xv. 4.
[335] Luke xv. 8.
[336] Luke xxiv. 46, 47.
[337] Mark xvi. 15, 16.
[338] John i. 29.
[339] John x. 27, 28.
[340] John xiv. 6.
Chapter 41.--From the First Epistle of Peter.
See with what earnestness the apostles declare this doctrine, when
they received it. Peter, in his first Epistle, says: "Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His abundant
mercy, who hath regenerated us unto the hope of eternal life, by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance immortal, and
undefiled, flourishing, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in
the last time." [341] And a little afterwards he adds: "May ye be
found unto the praise and honour of Jesus Christ: of whom ye were
ignorant; but in whom ye believe, though now ye see Him not; and in
whom also ye shall rejoice, when ye shall see Him, with joy
unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even
the salvation of your souls." [342] Again, in another place he says:
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath
called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." [343] Once more
he says: "Christ hath once suffered for our sins, the just for the
unjust, that He might bring us to God:" [344] and, after mentioning
the fact of eight persons having been saved in Noah's ark, he adds:
"And by the like figure baptism saveth you." [345] Now infants are
strangers to this salvation and light, and will remain in perdition
and darkness, unless they are joined to the people of God by adoption,
holding to Christ who suffered the just for the unjust, to bring them
unto God.
Footnotes
[341] 1 Pet. i. 3-5.
[342] 1 Pet. i. 7-9.
[343] 1 Pet. ii. 9.
[344] 1 Pet. iii. 18.
[345] 1 Pet. iii. 21.
Chapter 42.--From the First Epistle of John.
Moreover, from John's Epistle I meet with the following words, which
seem indispensable to the solution of this question: "But if," says
he, "we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us
from all sin." [346] To the like import he says, in another place: "If
we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this
is the witness of God, which is greater because He hath testified of
His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in
himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he
believed not in the testimony that God testified of His Son. And this
is the testimony, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this
life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life." [347] It seems, then, that it is
not only the kingdom of heaven, but life also, which infants are not
to have, if they have not the Son, whom they can only have by His
baptism. So again he says: "For this cause the Son of God was
manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." [348]
Therefore infants will have no interest in the manifestation of the
Son of God, if He do not in them destroy the works of the devil.
Footnotes
[346] 1 John i. 7.
[347] 1 John v. 9-12.
[348] 1 John iii. 8.
Chapter 43.--From the Epistle to the Romans.
Let me now request your attention to the testimony of the Apostle Paul
on this subject. And quotations from him may of course be made more
abundantly, because he wrote more epistles, and because it fell to him
to recommend the grace of God with especial earnestness, in opposition
to those who gloried in their works, and who, ignorant of God's
righteousness, and wishing to establish their own, submitted not to
the righteousness of God. [349] In his Epistle to the Romans he
writes: "The righteousness of God is upon all them that believe; for
there is no difference; since all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God; being justified freely by His grace, through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth as a
propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness
for the remission [350] of sins that are past, through the forbearance
of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; that He
might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
[351] Then in another passage he says: "To him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh
not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the
blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without
works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
no sin." [352] And then after no long interval he observes: "Now, it
was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but
for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that
raised up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for
our offences, and was raised again for our justification." [353] Then
a little after he writes: "For when we were yet without strength, in
due time Christ died for the ungodly." [354] In another passage he
says: "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under
sin. For that which I do I know not: for what I would, that I do not;
but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would not, I
consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in
my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but
how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I
would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do
that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in
me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present
with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I
see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." [355] Let
them, who can, say that men are not born in the body of this death,
that so they may be able to affirm that they have no need of God's
grace through Jesus Christ in order to be delivered from the body of
this death. Therefore he adds, a few verses afterwards: "For what the
law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh." [356] Let them say, who dare, that Christ must have
been born in the likeness of sinful flesh, if we were not born in
sinful flesh.
Footnotes
[349] Rom. x. 3.
[350] [This is the reading of the Vulgate, as well as of the Greek;
but Augustin, following an Old Latin reading, actually has propositum,
instead of remissionem.--W.]
[351] Rom. iii. 22-26.
[352] Rom. iv. 4-8.
[353] Rom. iv. 23-25.
[354] Rom. v. 6.
[355] Rom. vii. 14-25.
[356] Rom. viii. 3.
Chapter 44.--From the Epistles to the Corinthians.
Likewise to the Corinthians he says: "For I delivered to you first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures." [357] Again, in his Second Epistle to
these Corinthians: "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we
thus judge, that if One died for all, then all died: and for all did
Christ die, that they which live should no longer live unto
themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.
Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we
have known Christ after the flesh, yet from henceforth know we Him so
no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation. To what effect?
That God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them, and putting on us the ministry of
reconciliation. Now then are we ambassadors for Christ, as though God
did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, to be reconciled
to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that
we might become the righteousness of God in Him. [358] We then, as
workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the
grace of God in vain. (For He saith, I have heard thee in an
acceptable time, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee:
behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of
salvation.)" [359] Now, if infants are not embraced within this
reconciliation and salvation, who wants them for the baptism of
Christ? But if they are embraced, then are they reckoned as among the
dead for whom He died; nor can they be possibly reconciled and saved
by Him, unless He remit and impute not unto them their sins.
Footnotes
[357] 1 Cor. xv. 3.
[358] 2 Cor. v. 14-21.
[359] 2 Cor. vi. 1, 2.
Chapter 45.--From the Epistle to the Galatians.
Likewise to the Galatians the apostle writes: "Grace be to you, and
peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave
Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil
world." [360] While in another passage he says to them: "The law was
added because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom
the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a
mediator. Now a mediator belongs not to one party; but God is one. Is
the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all
under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe." [361]
Footnotes
[360] Gal. i. 3, 4.
[361] Gal. iii. 19-22.
Chapter 46.--From the Epistle to the Ephesians.
To the Ephesians he addresses words of the same import: "And you when
ye were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit of him that now worketh in the children
of disobedience; among whom also we all had our conversation in times
past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh
and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ; by whose grace ye are saved." [362] Again, a little
afterwards, he says: "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that
not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man
should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in
them." [363] And again, after a short interval: "At that time ye were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and
strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without
God in the world: but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes far
off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who
hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain
one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto
God in one body by the cross, having in Himself slain the enmity; and
He came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them
that were nigh. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto
the Father." [364] Then in another passage he thus writes: "As the
truth is in Jesus: that ye put off, concerning the former
conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful
lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on
the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness." [365] And again: "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." [366]
Footnotes
[362] Eph. ii. 1-5.
[363] Eph. ii. 8-10.
[364] Eph. ii. 12-18.
[365] Eph. iv. 21-24.
[366] Eph. iv. 30.
Chapter 47.--From the Epistle to the Colossians.
To the Colossians he addresses these words: "Giving thanks unto the
Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of
the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness,
and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we
have redemption in the remission of our sins." [367] And again he
says: "And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all
principality and power: in whom also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh
by the circumcision of Christ; buried with Him in baptism, wherein
also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God,
who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, when ye were dead in your
sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together
with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the
handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to
us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; and putting
the flesh off Him, [368] He made a show of principalities and powers,
confidently triumphing over them in Himself." [369]
Footnotes
[367] Col. i. 12-14.
[368] Exuens se carnem.
[369] Col. ii. 10-15.
Chapter 48.--From the Epistles to Timothy.
And then to Timothy he says: "This is a faithful saying, [370] and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all
long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe
on Him to life everlasting." [371] He also says: "For there is one God
and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave
Himself a ransom for all." [372] In his second Epistle to the same
Timothy, he says: "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of
our Lord, nor of me His prisoner: but be thou a fellow-labourer for
the gospel, according to the power of God; who hath saved us, and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began; but is now manifested by the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel." [373]
Footnotes
[370] Humanus sermo.
[371] 1 Tim. i. 15, 16.
[372] 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6.
[373] 2 Tim. i. 8-10.
Chapter 49.--From the Epistle to Titus.
Then again he writes to Titus as follows: "Looking for that blessed
hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that He might redeem us from
all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of
good works." [374] And to the like effect in another passage: "But
after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man
appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by His grace, we
should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." [375]
Footnotes
[374] Tit. ii. 13, 14.
[375] Tit. iii. 3-7.
Chapter 50.--From the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Although the authority of the Epistle to the Hebrews is doubted by
some, [376] nevertheless, as I find it sometimes thought by persons,
who oppose our opinion touching the baptism of infants, to contain
evidence in favour of their own views, we shall notice the pointed
testimony it bears in our behalf; and I quote it the more confidently,
because of the authority of the Eastern Churches, which expressly
place it amongst the canonical Scriptures. In its very exordium one
thus reads: "God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days
spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by
whom also He made the worlds; who, being the brightness of His glory,
and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the
word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high." [377] And by and by the writer
says: "For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every
transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward,
how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" [378] And again
in another passage: "Forasmuch then," says he, "as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of
the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power
of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." [379] Again,
shortly after, he says: "Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be
made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful
High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people." [380] And in another place he writes: "Let us
hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points
tempted like as we are, yet without sin." [381] Again he says: "He
hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth
to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest became us, who
is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher
than the heavens; who needeth not daily (as those high priests) to
offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people's:
for this He did once, when He offered up Himself." [382] And once
more: "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands,
which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that He should offer
Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every
year with blood of others; (for then must He often have suffered since
the foundation of the world;) but now once, in the end of the world,
hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as
it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so
Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many: and unto them that
look for Him shall He appear the second time, without sin, unto
salvation." [383]
Footnotes
[376] Amongst the Latins, as Jerome tells us in more than one passage
(see his Commentaries, on Isa. vi., viii.; on Zech. viii.; on Matt.
xxvi.; also, in his Catal. Script. Eccles., c. xvi. [ad Paulum], and
lxx. [ad Gaium], etc.). The Greeks, however, held that the epistle was
the work of St. Paul. In his Epistle cxxix. [ad Dardanum] he thus
writes: "We must admit that the epistle written to the Hebrews is
regarded as the Apostle Paul's, not only by the churches of the East,
but by all church writers who have from the beginning (retro) written
in Greek."--Note of the Benedictine Editor. [See Augustin's City of
God, xvi. 22 and Christian Doctrine, ii. (8), 13. The matter is fairly
stated by Augustin, after whose day the Epistle was not doubted even
in the West.--W.]
[377] Heb. i. 1-3.
[378] Heb. ii. 2, 3.
[379] Heb. ii. 14, 15.
[380] Heb. ii. 17.
[381] Heb. iv. 14, 15.
[382] Heb. vii. 24-27.
[383] Heb. ix. 24-28.
Chapter 51.--From the Apocalypse.
The Revelation of John likewise tells us that in a new song these
praises are offered to Christ: "Thou art worthy to take the book, and
to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us
to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and
nation." [384]
Footnotes
[384] Rev. v. 9.
Chapter 52.--From the Acts of the Apostles.
To the like effect, in the Acts of the Apostles, the Apostle Peter
designated the Lord Jesus as "the Author of life," upbraiding the Jews
for having put Him to death in these words: "But ye dishonoured and
denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted
unto you, and ye killed the Author of life." [385] While in another
passage he says: "This is the stone which was set at nought by you
builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there
salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved." [386] And again, elsewhere:
"The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew, by hanging on a
tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a
Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."
[387] Once more: "To Him give all the prophets witness, that, through
His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins."
[388] Whilst in the same Acts of the Apostles Paul says: "Be it known
therefore unto you, men and brethren, that through this Man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him every one that
believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be
justified by the law of Moses." [389]
Footnotes
[385] Acts iii. 14, 15.
[386] Acts iv. 11, 12.
[387] Acts v. 30, 31.
[388] Acts x. 43.
[389] Acts xiii. 38, 39.
Chapter 53.--The Utility of the Books of the Old Testament.
Under so great a weight of testimony, who would not be oppressed that
should dare lift up his voice against the truth of God? And many other
testimonies might be found, were it not for my anxiety to bring this
tract to an end,--an anxiety which I must not slight. I have deemed it
superfluous to quote from the books of the Old Testament, likewise,
many attestations to our doctrine in inspired words, since what is
concealed in them under the veil of earthly promises is clearly
revealed in the preaching of the New Testament. Our Lord Himself
briefly demonstrated and defined the use of the Old Testament
writings, when He said that it was necessary that what had been
written concerning Himself in the Law, and the Prophets, and the
Psalms, should be fulfilled, and that this was that Christ must
suffer, and rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem. [390] In agreement with this is that statement
of Peter which I have already quoted, how that all the prophets bear
witness to Christ, that at His hands every one that believes in Him
receives remission of his sins. [391]
Footnotes
[390] See Luke xxiv. 44-47.
[391] Acts x. 43.
Chapter 54.--By the Sacrifices of the Old Testament, Men Were
Convinced of Sins and Led to the Saviour.
And yet it is perhaps better to advance a few testimonies out of the
Old Testament also, which ought to have a supplementary, or rather a
cumulative value. The Lord Himself, speaking by the Psalmist, says:
"As for my saints which are upon earth, He hath caused all my purposes
to be admired in them." [392] Not their merits, but "my purposes." For
what is theirs except that which is afterwards mentioned,--"their
weaknesses are multiplied," [393] --above the weakness that they had?
Moreover, the law also entered, that the offence might abound. But why
does the Psalmist immediately add: "They hastened after?" [394] When
their sorrows and infirmities multiplied (that is, when their offence
abounded), they then sought the Physician more eagerly, in order that,
where sin abounded, grace might much more abound. He then says: "I
will not gather their assemblies together [with their offerings] of
blood;" for by their many sacrifices of blood, when they gathered
their assemblies into the tabernacle at first, and then into the
temple, they were rather convicted as sinners than cleansed. I shall
no longer, He says, gather their assemblies of blood-offerings
together; because there is one blood-shedding given for many, whereby
they may be truly cleansed. Then it follows: "Neither will I make
mention of their names with my lips," as if they were the names of
renewed ones. For these were their names at first: children of the
flesh, children of the world, children of wrath, children of the
devil, unclean, sinners, impious; but afterwards, children of God,--a
new name to the new man, a new song to the singer of what is new, by
means of the New Testament. Men must not be ungracious with God's
grace, mean with great things; [but be ever rising] from the less to
the greater. The cry of the whole Church is, "I have gone astray like
a lost sheep." [395] From all the members of Christ the voice is
heard: "All we, as sheep, have gone astray; and He hath Himself been
delivered up for our sins." [396] The whole of this passage of
prophecy is that famous one in Isaiah which was expounded by Philip to
the eunuch of Queen Candace, and he believed in Jesus. [397] See how
often he commends this very subject, and, as it were, inculcates it
again and again on proud and contentious men: "He was a man under
misfortune, and one who well knows to bear infirmities; wherefore also
He turned away His face, He was dishonoured, and was not much
esteemed. He it is that bears our weaknesses, and for us is involved
in pains: and we accounted Him to be in pains, and in misfortune, and
in punishment. But it was He who was wounded for our sins, was
weakened for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon
Him; and by His bruise we are healed. All we, as sheep, have gone
astray; and the Lord delivered Him up for our sins. And although He
was evilly entreated, yet He opened not His mouth: as a sheep was He
led to the slaughter, and as a lamb is dumb before the shearer, so He
opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away:
His generation who shall declare? For His life shall be taken away
from the earth, and for the iniquities of my people was He led to
death. Therefore I will give the wicked for His burial, and the rich
for His death; because He did no iniquity, nor deceit with His mouth.
The Lord is pleased to purge Him from misfortune. If you could
yourselves have given your soul on account of your sins, ye should see
a seed of a long life. And the Lord is pleased to rescue His soul from
pains, to show Him light, and to form it through His understanding; to
justify the Just One, who serves many well; and He shall Himself bear
their sins. Therefore He shall inherit many, and He shall divide the
spoils of the mighty; and He was numbered amongst the transgressors;
and Himself bare the sins of many, and He was delivered for their
iniquities." [398] Consider also that passage of this same prophet
which Christ actually declared to be fulfilled in Himself, when He
recited it in the synagogue, in discharging the function of the
reader: [399] "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath
anointed me: to preach glad tidings to the poor hath He sent me, that
so I may refresh all who are broken-hearted,--to preach deliverance to
the captives, and to the blind sight." [400] Let us then all
acknowledge Him; nor should there be one exception among persons like
ourselves, who wish to cleave to His body, to enter through Him into
the sheepfold, and to attain to that life and eternal salvation which
He has promised to His own.--Let us, I repeat, all of us acknowledge
Him who did no sin, who bare our sins in His own body on the tree,
that we might live with righteousness separate from sins; by whose
scars we are healed, when we were weak [401] --like wandering sheep.
Footnotes
[392] Ps. xvi. 3.
[393] Ps. xvi. 4.
[394] Ps. xvi. 4.
[395] Ps. cxix. 176.
[396] Isa. liii. 6.
[397] Acts viii. 30-37.
[398] Isa. liii. 3-12.
[399] See Luke iv. 16-21.
[400] Isa. lxi. 1.
[401] There seems to be here some omission.--Benedictine Note.
Chapter 55 [XXVIII.]--He Concludes that All Men Need the Death of
Christ, that They May Be Saved. Unbaptized Infants Will Be Involved in
the Condemnation of the Devil. How All Men Through Adam are Unto
Condemnation; And Through Christ Unto Justification. No One is
Reconciled with God, Except Through Christ.
In such circumstances, no man of those who have come to Christ by
baptism has ever been regarded, according to sound faith and the true
doctrine, as excepted from the grace of forgiveness of sins; nor has
eternal life been ever thought possible to any man apart from His
kingdom. For this [eternal life] is ready to be revealed at the last
time, [402] that is, at the resurrection of the dead who are reserved
not for that eternal death which is called "the second death," but for
the eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promises to His saints and
faithful servants. Now none who shall partake of this life shall be
made alive except in Christ, even as all die in Adam. [403] For as
none whatever, of all those who belong to the generation according to
the will of the flesh, die except in Adam, in whom all sinned; so, out
of these, none at all who are regenerated by the will of the Spirit
are endowed with life except in Christ, in whom all are justified.
Because as through one all to condemnation, so through One all to
justification. [404] Nor is there any middle place for any man, and so
a man can only be with the devil who is not with Christ. Accordingly,
also the Lord Himself (wishing to remove from the hearts of
wrong-believers [405] that vague and indefinite middle condition,
which some would provide for unbaptized infants,--as if, by reason of
their innocence, they were embraced in eternal life, but were not,
because of their unbaptized state, with Christ in His kingdom) uttered
that definitive sentence of His, which shuts their mouths: "He that is
not with me is against me." [406] Take then the case of any infant you
please: If he is already in Christ, why is he baptized? If, however,
as the Truth has it, he is baptized just that he may be with Christ,
it certainly follows that he who is not baptized is not with Christ;
and because he is not "with" Christ, he is "against" Christ; for He
has pronounced His own sentence, which is so explicit that we ought
not, and indeed cannot, impair it or change it. And how can he be
"against" Christ, if not owing to sin? for it cannot possibly be from
his soul or his body, both of these being the creation of God. Now if
it be owing to sin, what sin can be found at such an age, except the
ancient and original sin? Of course that sinful flesh in which all are
born to condemnation is one thing, and that Flesh which was made
"after the likeness of sinful flesh," whereby also all are freed from
condemnation, is another thing. It is, however, by no means meant to
be implied that all who are born in sinful flesh are themselves
actually cleansed by that Flesh which is "like" sinful flesh; "for all
men have not faith;" [407] but that all who are born from the carnal
union are born entirely of sinful flesh, whilst all who are born from
the spiritual union are cleansed only by the Flesh which is in the
likeness of sinful flesh. In other words, the former class are in Adam
unto condemnation, the latter are in Christ unto justification. This
is as if we should say, for example, that in such a city there is a
certain midwife who delivers all; and in the same place there is an
expert teacher who instructs all. By all, in the one case, only those
who are born can possibly be understood; by all, in the other, only
those who are taught: and it does not follow that all who are born
also receive the instruction. But it is obvious to every one, that in
the one case it is correctly said, "she delivers all," since without
her aid no one is born; and in the other, it is rightly said, "he
teaches all," since without his tutoring, no one learns.
Footnotes
[402] 1 Pet. i. 5.
[403] 1 Cor. xv. 22.
[404] Rom. v. 18.
[405] Malè credentium.
[406] Matt. xii. 30.
[407] 2 Thess. iii. 2.
Chapter 56.--No One is Reconciled to God Except Through Christ.
Taking into account all the inspired statements which I have
quoted,--whether I regard the value of each passage one by one, or
combine their united testimony in an accumulated witness or even
include similar passages which I have not adduced,--there can be
nothing discovered, but that which the catholic Church holds, in her
dutiful vigilance against all profane novelties: that every man is
separated from God, except those who are reconciled to God through
Christ the Mediator; and that no one can be separated from God, except
by sins, which alone cause separation; that there is, therefore, no
reconciliation except by the remission of sins, through the one grace
of the most merciful Saviour,--through the one sacrifice of the most
veritable Priest; and that none who are born of the woman, that
trusted the serpent and so was corrupted through desire, [408] are
delivered from the body of this death, except by the Son of the virgin
who believed the angel and so conceived without desire. [409]
Footnotes
[408] Gen. iii. 6.
[409] Luke i. 38.
Chapter 57 [XXIX.]--The Good of Marriage; Four Different Cases of the
Good and the Evil Use of Matrimony.
The good, then, of marriage lies not in the passion of desire, but in
a certain legitimate and honourable measure in using that passion,
appropriate to the propagation of children, not the gratification of
lust. [410] That, therefore, which is disobediently excited in the
members of the body of this death, and endeavours to draw into itself
our whole fallen soul, (neither arising nor subsiding at the bidding
of the mind), is that evil of sin in which every man is born. When,
however, it is curbed from unlawful desires, and is permitted only for
the orderly propagation and renewal of the human race, this is the
good of wedlock, by which man is born in the union that is appointed.
Nobody, however, is born again in Christ's body, unless he be
previously born in the body of sin. But inasmuch as it is evil to make
a bad use of a good thing, so is it good to use well a bad thing.
These two ideas therefore of good and evil, and those other two of a
good use and an evil use, when they are duly combined together,
produce four different conditions:--[1] A man makes a good use of a
good thing, when he dedicates his continence to God; [2.] He makes a
bad use of a good thing, when he dedicates his continence to an idol;
[3.] He makes a bad use of an evil thing, when he loosely gratifies
his concupiscence by adultery; [4.] He makes a good use of an evil
thing, when he restrains his concupiscence by matrimony. Now, as it is
better to make good use of a good thing than to make good rise of an
evil thing,--since both are good,--so "he that giveth his virgin in
marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth
better." [411] This question, indeed, I have treated at greater
length, and more sufficiently, as God enabled me according to my
humble abilities, in two works of mine,--one of them, On the Good of
Marriage, and the other, On Holy Virginity. They, therefore, who extol
the flesh and blood of a sinful creature, to the prejudice of the
Redeemer's flesh and blood, must not defend the evil of concupiscence
through the good of marriage; nor should they, from whose infant age
the Lord has inculcated in us a lesson of humility, [412] be lifted up
into pride by the error of others. He only was born without sin whom a
virgin conceived without the embrace of a husband,--not by the
concupiscence of the flesh, but by the chaste submission of her mind.
[413] She alone was able to give birth to One who should heal our
wound, who brought forth the germ of a pure offspring without the
wound of sin.
Footnotes
[410] [The editions, but apparently no Mss., add here the somewhat
sententious words: "Voluntas ista, non voluptas illa, nuptialis
est,"--which may, perhaps, be rendered: "Wedded desire is willingness,
not wantonness."--W.]
[411] 1 Cor. vii. 38.
[412] Matt. xviii. 4.
[413] Luke i. 34, 38.
Chapter 58 [XXX.]--In What Respect the Pelagians Regarded Baptism as
Necessary for Infants.
Let us now examine more carefully, so far as the Lord enables us, that
very chapter of the Gospel where He says, "Except a man be born
again,--of water and the Spirit,-- he shall not enter into the kingdom
of God." [414] If it were not for the authority which this sentence
has with them, they would not be of opinion that infants ought to be
baptized at all. This is their comment on the passage: "Because He
does not say, `Except a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he
shall not have salvation or eternal life,' but He merely said, `he
shall not enter into the kingdom of God,' therefore infants are to be
baptized, in order that they may be with Christ in the kingdom of God,
where they will not be unless they are baptized. Should infants die,
however, even without baptism, they will have salvation and eternal
life, seeing that they are bound with no fetter of sin." Now in such a
statement as this, the first thing that strikes one is, that they
never explain where the justice is of separating from the kingdom of
God that "image of God" which has no sin. Next, we ought to see
whether the Lord Jesus, the one only good Teacher, has not in this
very passage of the Gospel intimated, and indeed shown us, that it
only comes to pass through the remission of their sins that baptized
persons reach the kingdom of God; although to persons of a right
understanding, the words, as they stand in the passage, ought to be
sufficiently explicit: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God;" [415] and: "Except a man be born of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." [416] For why should
he be born again, unless to be renewed? From what is he to be renewed,
if not from some old condition? From what old condition, but that in
which "our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed?" [417] Or whence comes it to pass that "the image of
God" enters not into the kingdom of God, unless it be that the
impediment of sin prevents it? However, let us (as we said before)
see, as earnestly and diligently as we are able, what is the entire
context of this passage of the Gospel, on the point in question.
Footnotes
[414] John iii. 3, 5.
[415] John iii. 3.
[416] John iii. 5.
[417] Rom. vi. 6.
Chapter 59.--The Context of Their Chief Text.
"Now there was," we read, "a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a
ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto Him,
Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can
do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith
unto Him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the
second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is
born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but
canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one
that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How
can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a
master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen;
and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and
ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from
heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, [418] even so must the Son of man be
lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to
condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He
that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the
only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is
come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he
that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made
manifest, that they are wrought in God." [419] Thus far the Lord's
discourse wholly relates to the subject of our present inquiry; from
this point the sacred historian digresses to another matter.
Footnotes
[418] Num. xxi. 9.
[419] John iii. 1-21.
Chapter 60 [XXXI.]--Christ, the Head and the Body; Owing to the Union
of the Natures in the Person of Christ, He Both Remained in Heaven,
and Walked About on Earth; How the One Christ Could Ascend to Heaven;
The Head, and the Body, the One Christ.
Now when Nicodemus understood not what was being told him, he inquired
of the Lord how such things could be. Let us look at what the Lord
said to him in answer to his inquiry; for of course, as He deigns to
answer the question, How can these things be? He will in fact tell us
how spiritual regeneration can come to a man who springs from carnal
generation. After noticing briefly the ignorance of one who assumed a
superiority over others as a teacher, and having blamed the unbelief
of all such, for not accepting His witness to the truth, He went on to
inquire and wonder whether, as He had told them about earthly things
and they had not believed they would believe heavenly things. He
nevertheless pursues the subject, and gives an answer s